A petition lodged this month at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands accused Iran of genocide and additional serious offenses for its alleged role in the October 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
The submission — brought by a relative of victims who were slain and abducted on October 7 — sought that investigators open a probe and request arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and IRGC commander Esmail Qaani.
The document accuses Tehran of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide, asserting that Iranian authorities supported the Hamas operation with training, weaponry, direction, and coordination. The paperwork was shipped to the court earlier this month and was also uploaded electronically on Friday.
“The IRGC, at the direction of the Iranian regime and specifically Khamenei and Qaani, knowingly and intentionally provided weapons to Hamas for the purpose of killing Jews, Israelis, and other affiliated members of a protected group,” the complaint said.
The case was submitted on behalf of Maurice Shnaider, whose niece Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, were taken by Hamas and killed while captive. Shnaider also lost his sister Margit Shnaider Silberman and his brother-in-law Yossi Silberman in the October 7 violence.
“Because these Iranian officials were aware and provided material support to Hamas’s taking of hostages, among whom were the Bibas family, it is imperative that warrants be sought for Khamenei and Qaani,” the complaint said.
Eli Rosenbaum, a former U.S. Justice Department prosecutor who handled war-crimes cases, and Elliot Malin, a Nevada-based human-rights attorney, prepared and filed the complaint.
The submission relied on Article 15 of the Rome Statute — the 1998 treaty that created the ICC — which permits individuals or organizations to present information to the court’s Office of the Prosecutor as a basis for an inquiry.
Article 15 directs that prosecutors review any information received about alleged crimes and initiate an investigation when they determine there is a reasonable basis to do so.
The ICC did not immediately provide a comment when contacted.
Although Iran has not joined the ICC, the court determined in 2021 that it could exercise jurisdiction over Gaza after the Palestinian Authority lodged a declaration accepting the court’s authority. Israel, likewise, is not a party to the ICC.
Last year the court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-defense minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas figures on allegations of crimes against humanity related to the Gaza conflict. The new filing this month seeks to expand accountability by targeting Tehran’s alleged collaborators.
“Given that the ICC’s prosecutor asserted nearly two years ago that the Court possesses jurisdiction over the October 7 Hamas atrocities and their aftermath, it is long past time for the prosecutor to act to hold accountable Hamas’s main accomplices in Tehran,” Rosenbaum said in a statement.
Rosenbaum previously led investigations and prosecutions of alleged war criminals at the Department of Justice, including cases tied to World War II-era Nazis.
The complaint linked the October 7 massacre to historical genocidal violence, noting that five generations of the Shnaider family had been killed for being Jewish across both conflicts.
“My family, the Shnaider family, had multiple generations tortured and murdered at the hands of those who persecute people of Jewish heritage,” Shnaider said in a statement. “‘Never Again’ was supposed to mean something, so today we demand justice for my lost and affected family, and so many others also with loss at the hands of terrorists just for being Jewish.”
The filing accuses Khamenei and Qaani of murder, extermination, torture, and persecution — all constituting crimes against humanity — as well as the war crimes of hostage-taking and intentional attacks on civilians, and of genocide.
The lawyers argued that Iran knowingly furnished material assistance that enabled Hamas’s alleged offenses, pointing to supporting evidence including a U.S. federal case filed in New York last year. The complaint also referenced reported Iranian confirmations of ties to the assault and alleged transfers of tens of millions of dollars to Hamas.
“We coordinated with Hezbollah and with Iran and the Axis before, during, and after this battle at the highest level,” a Hamas official said days after the October 2023 attack.
The complaint pointed to earlier violent incidents linked to Iranian-backed actors — such as the 1994 AMIA bombing at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires — and contended that those acts fit within a genocidal pattern under international law.
It noted that Hamas figures, including the late Yahya Sinwar, publicly acknowledged receiving missiles from Iran that were used against Israeli civilians, and argued that both Hamas and Iranian statements expressing a desire to annihilate Israelis amounted to crimes against humanity. The filing also referenced Iranian missile strikes on Israeli population centers earlier this year.
Because proving genocide requires demonstrating an intent to destroy a protected group — a demanding legal standard — the complaint asserted that explicit declarations by Hamas and Iranian leaders satisfied that threshold.
The filing implicitly compared this case to the ICC’s proceedings concerning Netanyahu and Gallant and to allegations of genocide against Israel at the International Court of Justice; the ICC prosecutes individuals, while the ICJ resolves disputes between states, and both sit in The Hague.
Those parallel complaints have relied on public remarks by Israeli officials — including Netanyahu’s invocation of the biblical enemy Amalek and Gallant’s description of foes as “human animals” — which critics said signaled genocidal intent, though supporters argued the remarks were ambiguous and pointed out that Israeli leaders repeatedly pledged to obey the laws of war and to minimize civilian harm.
Gallant said last week that his comment about “human animals” had not referred to Palestinian civilians, but to “the perpetrators and orchestrators of these barbaric attacks.”
By contrast, the statements from Iranian figures cited in the complaint were presented as unequivocal.
“There is only one solution to the Middle East problem, namely the annihilation and destruction of the Jewish state,” Khamenei said in 2006.
Weeks after October 7, Hamas official Ghazi Hamad declared, “Israel is a country that has no place on our land.”
“We must remove it,” Hamad said of Israel, while vowing further attacks against Israel.
{Matzav.com}
